If there is one subject that concerns every French person, it is that of housing, “first item of household expenditure” recalls a lay of the majority, “which strikes around 40% of their budget, with prices that have doubled in fifteen years.” In short, a purchasing power issue. “This is the blind spot of the five-year term”, accuses the same, when a MoDem deputy sees it as the root cause of the emergence of “yellow vests”, arguing that the question of the car and expensive gasoline would arise less if the popular and middle classes still managed to stay in metropolitan areas, near a transport network.
The oppositions are not mistaken: all are talking about housing. From the drop in APL, “executive policy marker” for the communist Ian Brossat, to the socialists who denounce the poor record of housing construction, particularly social housing, in sharp decline. On this last point, the executive points to the responsibility of the town halls who refuse to grant building permits, and the health crisis, which has lengthened the deadlines for examining cases. But whatever the reasons, Emmanuel Macron cannot start his campaign to come with a ball on this issue.
The government is therefore working twice as hard at the end of its mandate. First device announced by Minister Emmanuelle Wargon: “affordable renting”: −15% reduction in rental income tax for an owner who rents his property 15% below the market, –30% for a rent that is 35% cheaper. The device is not new, but it was considered too restrictive in design. The executive simplifies it. The objective is to compensate for the shortage of social housing: 2.2 million French people are awaiting a response after submitting a file. “Affordable renting” allows you to immediately create a low-cost offer on vacant properties rather than waiting for construction programs to emerge.
Another announcement can be made before the end of the year, on the regulation of rents, via the decentralization law – called “3DS law”, for differentiation, decentralization, deconcentration and simplification – which arrives at the Assembly, and which redefines the relationship between the State and the communities. The majority is not against transferring the power of sanction to the municipalities, to punish owners who depart from the rule. Today, it is the prefect who has the competence, but the controls do not necessarily follow. In Paris, the town hall judges that 40% of rental companies do not respect the rent regulations. A figure to be compared with the number of fines drawn up in a year: there were nine.
Beyond the legislative aspects, there is also a problem of government architecture, according to several elected officials who call for housing to be taken out of the tutelage of ecology. To make it a full ministry, to “give more power to the minister.” “Otherwise, explains a specialist, it is to condemn the incumbent of the post to do only energy renovation. “ What works well, and that Emmanuel Macron can put forward during his campaign. But this does not resolve the entire spectrum of problems posed by housing.